Kevin Chapman back at The Park for another raid on Northern feature spoils

Dec 8, 2016 Trainer Interviews

Amberley trainer Kevin Chapman will be back at The Park this Friday night and looking to take away some of the feature spoils that we have here on track over the next few weeks. Kevin will have two charges in this Friday night and his team will be headed by his star pacer (and Auckland Cup nominated) Locharburn and he will be joined by his talented trotter (and National Trot nominated) Belles Son. The AP newsdesk caught up with Kevin to discuss how the team had travelled up and how they were leading into their first up Northern assignments this Friday night.

Race 4 (9) Belles Son – “He’s settled in well since arriving in the North and I’m happy with how he is leading into Friday nights race. He’s no stranger to The Park having won here earlier in his career so going right-handed won’t be any issue to him. There are a few nice types in the race with a handicapping advantage over him but he showed with his last start win he is back racing in really good form and with a National Trot nomination, we would be looking for him to be putting in a really competitve effort on Friday and I am confident he will do so.”

Race 10 (6) Locharburn – “I’m pretty happy with him and how is feeling at the moment. In hindsight, the FFA was probably a bridge too far just at that stage with the setbacks we had had but he has come through that run well and I am happy with how he is leading into Friday night. His work at home has been excellent and even though we are a visitor to The Park, he seems to have a good affinity with the track and we are hoping he can contnue on his run of form, that hasn’t seen him miss a top three placing in all his six starts on the track. It’s probably one of the strongest Summer Cup fields in recent years so he will have to be at his best to win but I know how good he is and he is well up to winning this if things went his way on the night. Going forward from here, we will progress into the Franklin Cup next week and then look to take our place in the Auckland Cup on NYE. He will only continue to improve over the next 3 weeks and all going well, the Auckland Cup could be coming back to Amberley come the 31st.”